Bears and bulls duke it out as KSE 100 plunges 65 points

The stock market exhibited correction on the last trading day after successive bullish trend in the earlier trading sessions.

Investor participation remained low on Friday as the investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of the monetary policy announcement, which is due on Monday and IMF team’s expected visit in the following days to assess the performance of Pakistan’s correction course amid IMF loan package worth $6 billion which was approved in the exchange of major fiscal and monetary changes in the country.

During a briefing in Washington DC on Thursday, Gerry Rice, the IMF communications department director, also discussed Pakistan. “One of the key elements of the program that the IMF is supporting in Pakistan is the need to mobilize domestic tax revenue to fund much needed social and development spending while placing debt on a firm downward trend,” he explained.

Foreign investors offloaded stocks worth $1.39 million on Thursday.

On the economic front, the country’s liquid foreign exchange reserves, as on Sept 6th, stood at $15,752 million, up by 0.85pc, when compared to $15,620 million recorded on 30th August..

Moreover, as per the latest figures released by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA), the country’s auto sales sunk by 41pc YoY in August 2019, from 17,662 units in August 2018 to 10,496 units. On a month-on-month basis, sales slipped by 16pc, from 12,482 units in July 2019 to 10,496 units in August 2019.

Declining by 266.78 points, the KSE-100 Index recorded an intraday low of 31,279.83. The index settled lower by 65.30 points at 31,481.31. The KMI-30 Index gained 254.51 points to close at 49,716.77, whereas the KSE All Share Index fell short by 12.83 points, ending at 23,038.00.

The overall volumes declined from 185.84 million in the preceding session to 103.04 million. Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF -1.30pc) topped the volume chart with 7.52 million shares exchanging hands, followed by Unity Foods Limited (UNITY +1.83pc) and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC +0.39pc). The scripts had traded 7.13 million shares and 6.82 million shares traded respectively.